The article is devoted to the little-studied issues of the history of the Russian banking (credit) system formation and development, considered by the authors in the context of solving the most complex social and economic modernization problems facing the state and society in the 18th - 19th centuries. It is shown that the evolution of this system was determined by a combination of factors: the class-protective (paternalistic) nature of the state financial and credit policy, the predominance of state and public organizational forms of credit institutions and the social and charitable orientation of their activities. The most important component of paternalistic policy was also the government measures to restrict interest rate. The analysis is intended to become an important condition for the formation of a conceptual basis for the Russian banking business transformation in the interests of sustainable development.